2nd Season started January 24th in the US, runs for 10 eps. Already been renewed for 3rd and 4th season. Amazon Prime Instant Video have the UK rights and will be releasing it on a weekly basis every Sunday i.e less than 24hrs after US showing. Final season starts 29th January.

1715. The Golden Age of Piracy. New Providence is a lawless island, controlled by history's most notorious pirate captains. The most feared - Captain Flint.

As the British Navy returns to redeem their land and exterminate Flint and his crew, another side of him emerges. Captain Flint aligns himself with Eleanor Guthrie, daughter of the local kingpin, to hunt the ultimate prize and ensure their survival.

Many opponents stand in their way: rival captains, jealous of Flint's power; Eleanor's ambitious and intrusive father; and a young sailor recently recruited onto Flint's crew, John Silver, who constantly undermines his captain's agenda.

The real surprise is just how entertaining "Black Sails" is. This is often grand-scale entertainment, with pounding action sequences and sumptuous special effects -- a re-created London circa 1705, or the port of Nassau, where even the nonhuman rats can be seen scurrying through the streets. The stories are intricate enough to hold attention, but not too intricate. The action, which always supersedes the chatter, is the thing, and here it's something to see indeed.

BOTTOM LINE Starz has a bona fide hit -- averaging 5.3 million viewers per episode last season -- and it's easy to see why.

Starz, though, knows the formula for these costume-heavy action dramas from experience with shows like “Spartacus” and “Camelot.” And that formula is executed with particular skill in “Black Sails,” thanks to some strong performances and an exploration of the consequences of greed that could have come out of modern-day Wall Street.

I hadn't heard a thing about this - thanks Monkey Man!I love the whole Pirates setting and it requires money to do it justice. My concern would be that this would be a low budget USTV series but the explanation that it was made as an 8 hour movie and Michael Bay behind it is reassuring. I will give this one a try.

Because he's one of the most famous and loved fictional antagonists ever written?

So it's lazy writing, then: Can't be bothered to create your own lovable rogue, so let's plunder someone else's works for one? Gotcha.

It's 1715. The Caribbean isn't wanting for colourful characters. It seems really sloppy to ignore them and bring in that guy.

From Capt. Flints Wiki page..

In Stevenson's book, Flint, whose first name is not given, was the captain of a pirate ship, the Walrus, which accumulated an enormous amount of captured treasure, approximately £700,000. Flint and six members of his crew bury the plunder on an island located somewhere in the Caribbean Sea. Flint then murders his six assistants leaving the corpse of one, Allardyce, with its arms outstretched in the direction of the buried treasure.The location of the treasure is marked by Flint on a map and entrusted to his first mate William "Billy" Bones. It later falls into the hands of the hero of the novel, Jim Hawkins.The only person Flint was said to fear was his quartermaster John Silver, who later even called his parrot "Captain Flint" in mockery.Flint is said to have died in Savannah, shouting "Darby M'Graw - fetch aft the rum...." His death was said in the book to have been caused by the effects of rum. The inscription on the map suggests that he died in 1754.

Anyway, watched it and really enjoyed it. Shame the webrip was really gooseberry fool quality but I suppose I'll watch the HD version for Ep1 again when it starts showing properly.

Surprised by just how unlikable they're making Long John Silver, always thought of him as the lovable rogue (at least on first appearances), yet having him listen through the wall whilst the prostitute was getting choked to death, makes him seem so cowardly as well as cold. They gotta long way to go to turn him into 'The only man Flint ever feared' kinda thing